Mormon 8:9 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
and now behold I say no more concerning them for there are none save it be [ 1A|the BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] Lamanites and robbers that do exist upon the face of the land

Here the 1837 edition added the before Lamanites. This change may have been accidental. Elsewhere in the text we have one other occurrence that supports the 1837 reading: “and there is none save it be the Lamanites” (Ether 4:3). In this passage Moroni once more refers to his being alone. Yet in the Ether 4:3 passage, Moroni does not refer to the robbers. Everywhere else in the text where Lamanites is conjoined with robbers, we find that the conjoined elements always have the same parallel construction; either both have the definite article the or neither do:

Thus Mormon 8:9, if it is to read consistently with the rest of the text, should not have the intrusive the. The critical text will restore the original reading without the the.

Summary: Remove the intrusive the in Mormon 8:9, restoring the original phraseology “save it be Lamanites and robbers”.

Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, Part. 6

References